The Kid

This morning - a Wednesday - JP got up at 5:15 a.m. an ran six miles.  Absolutely on his own with no prompting from me.  This isn't unusual behavior for him, as he has been running one or two mornings a week and on weekends, too.

He was one of three or four freshman to make the junior varsity baseball team and the season is only just underway with practice every day and a scrimmage on Saturday morning, weather permitting.  His workload at school, of course, is demanding.  Homework every night and quizzed or tests every day.  Two today, in fact (Latin and Geometry).  

Still, he runs.  

It's an amazing thing, as a father, to be inspired by your 15 year old son.  

I've had a pretty good start to 2024 with my running, in part because I'm inspired by JP's running.  Yes, I've stayed relatively health so far this year but seeing him put the miles in motivates me to do the same.  

I wonder what motivates him to run in the cross country offseason, while he's playing baseball.  I know he keeps up with what other runners in the state are doing this spring through the MileSplit website.  I suspect he doesn't want to fall behind other cross country runners who are running track and, therefore, running almost every day.  I also think he wants to be ready to crank up the mileage this summer, in June and July, when he and his cross country teammates start running in the mornings at Vaughn's Gap.

Simply put, I think - no, I know - JP wants to be the best runner he can be.  I admire him for that, too, of course, because it takes dedication, discipline, and desire.  

I wonder if at some point his running will conflict with other sports.  Unless something changes, I have a hard time seeing JP playing basketball next season, as a sophomore, even if he could make the junior varsity team.  My guess is he will want to run in some indoor track meets after cross country season is over.  I also suspect he will find a way, next winter, to run regularly and get ready for baseball in the spring, too.  

I guess seeing me go out to run - really, for his entire life - may have had some small impact on him.  He has seen how important it is to me.  Still, what JP already has accomplished as a runner and his dedication to the sport is something completely different than anything I have ever done.  His ceiling as a runner, I think, is higher than mine ever was, by about a mile.  Way higher.  

JP's combination of talent, desire, desire, and competitiveness is very rare, especially in a boy his age.  It's early, I know, and a whole lot of things have to fall in the right directly for him to have the success as a runner in high school that I know he wants to have.  He's got stay healthy.  He's got to continue to love running and I think he will.

What I really hope, though, is that JP learns that the dedication he has to running - to putting in the work and being disciplined - is something he can apply to whatever he does in life, personally and professionally.  That's what I want him to learn most of all.  

The Kid.